Chesapeake Bay past Annapolis

Still Pond, MD
N 39 12.927 W 076 08.499

Nature was kind to us today. We had great wind (and the last wind for the next 5 days according to the forecasts).

We left LaTrappe Creek (our favorite anchorage) around 08:00. By 11:00 we were through Knapp Narrows. By 13:00 we were flying past Annapolis. There were lots of sailboats out for this fine Sunday. Annapolis sailors are admirable. I think they sail more and leave their boats at the dock less than just about any place I know. Annapolis sailors also own many very beautiful boats and they sail them very well. We were treated to a fine show today.

We arrived here at Still Pond (our second favorite anchorage) around 19:00. That was a very fast passage for those 55 nautical miles (102 Km). Actually, we got here only in the nick of time. About 3 miles out we heard a warning from the Coast Guard on the VHF. "Seek shelter immediately," it said, "there is a severe thunderstorm over Baltimore and heading your way at 23 miles per hour." Boy those things sound scary. The sky did look pretty ugly to the west, so we hurried in here to the anchorage
under sail and motor. Now that we're securely anchored, it appears that the storm is going to miss us.

Still Pond is the place that we took David and Bobby to 2 years ago. Come to think of it, there was a big thunderstorm that passed over us on that day too. Anyhow, Dave now you know exactly where we are. According to the GPS, we are 240 feet from where we anchored when you were here.

We're controlling our fridge manually. On hour on, four hours off. Last night I happened to wake up about the right time to cycle it at 04:00. Don't know who (if either of us) will do that tonight.

High Street, Cambridge

Cambridge MD

N 38 34.330 W 076 04.445



We did the walking tour yesterday and we had a lot of fun.   Our tour docent was Carol.   We were also joined by Renee, a local girl who works for the UofM at Horn Point.



Carol explained that James A. Michener who researched his book here, said that High Street is the most beautiful street in America.  It sure deserves the accolades.    The wonderful old revolutionary and Victorian houses, the sycamore trees, and the magnolia trees combine to make it look like a 19th century fairyland. 



We especially enjoyed the story of the MD Attorney General's house that was moved to High Street from Annapolis by barge.   It seeems that when the movers put it down at it's new home, they had the back side of the house facing the street.  



The Anglican (Episcopal) church on High Street is especially beautiful.  It is built with serpentine stone, an extremely rare and prized building material.  It also has the most stury slate roof and some of the most beautiful stained glass windows we have ever seen.  It is a picture perfect church.



One of the grand old houses is a victim of arson.  Cambridge is suffering from a serial arsonist in recent months.   



Another good story.  One of the houses was built as a 20 room hotel.  Later, the hotel went out of business but the owners kept it as a family home.    At one point, they cut the house in half, moved one half fifteen feet to the right, and made it in to two homes for two branches of the family.   Remarkable how 15 feet and two new walls can influence familial relationships. :)

Above are some scenes from High Street.

Cambridge Life

Cambridge MD
N 38 34.330 W 076 04.445

We like Cambridge. It is a favorite stop whenever we are in the Chesapeake region. It has two minor attractions. First, is the magic of being central in Michener's story Chesapeake. Second, is the free dock offered by the city. Boats are allowed to tie up on the wall in the harbor for 4 hours.

However the real appeal of Cambridge is that it is such a charming little city. In my mind, Cambridge is very much like New Bern, North Carolina, which is well known to cruisers as a charming place. We like walking the streets to see the majestic Victorian houses. In fact, after posting this blog, Libby and I are going to take a guided walking tour of historic Cambridge.

There are also two court houses near to the waterfront. In the past, I enjoyed observing some real life trials here in Cambridge. That's very intellectually stimulating. This trip however, there were no courts in session. I guess all the judges must be vacationing in France or something.

Finally, there is a public library right next to the water front. On oppressively hot afternoons we can take refuge there. I post blogs and I can read the Wall Street Journal. Yesterday I also found a way to export my entire blog archive to a data base file on my hard drive. That's not only a good back up, but also the first step needed to convert the blog archive to book form.

One thing was not so nice. The free wall that we tie up against is rough finished. There are square beams that stick out yet do not extend above the wall. Yesterday, when both Libby and I were away from the boat, our rub rail caught on the top of one of those beams in a falling tide. Despite the numerous fenders we had out, the beam got under the rail. As Tarwathie fell with the the tide, her whole weight pressed down until the teak rub rail shattered and broke loose from the hull. Now I have a new project -- repair the rail. If I can't repair it, I'll have to find a carpenter to make a new one and that will be expensive.

When we bought Tarwathie, her hull was unblemished, shining with a beautiful Awlgrip finish. Now, I'm ashamed to say that she has numerous dings and scars and dock rash marks. I always suspect that I could be more vigilant and cautious in avoiding such damage, but in reality I don't see how I could do it much better.

We are also having trouble with our refrigerator/freezer. The motor runs almost all the time. I called a repair man in Solomons, but he still has not returned our call. I presume that he's so over booked that he doesn't want new customers. I bought a can of refrigerant and an adapter hose for $16 in a hardware store, but I had to return it because it wouldn't fit the service port. I ordered an adapter hose from Technautics, the manufacturer. That way it was guaranteed to fit. I had it shipped to Cambridge. It came along with an invoice for $179. (WOW what markups these people impose!) I used it to recharge the fridge and get all the bubbles out of the circulation loop. However, the motor is still running all the time even though it's plenty cold in there. It must be some other cause.

A Fellow Blogger

LaTrappe Creek
N 38 37.903 W 076 07.131

We are back in the place that we said before is our favorite anchorage on the whole east coast. LaTrappe Creek seems to embody the best of Chesapeake charm and beauty. The anchorage is in a little cove near the mouth that is well sheltered from all directions. The holding is good, the surroundings are beautiful. What more could one ask for.

Yesterday, we had a very interesting visit with Doug Campbell on board Doug's Westsail 32 Ranger. Doug is a blog fan who contacted us a while back. As it turns out, Doug is also a writer for Soundings Magazine, and he writes the blogs on the soundings web site. So, in addition to this blog, you can read Doug's blog about our visit.

We have a lot in common with Doug in our outlooks, ambitions and past experiences. However, he's still not a full time cruise. Doug's wife isn't quite ready for that yet. We also had fun discussing the ins and outs of W32 ownership.

However, Doug does have one thing that we and all other cruisers can envy. He earns his living writing for Soundings from his floating office on board Ranger. That's what I call a dream job.

Ranger is docked at Oxford Boat Yard in Oxford Maryland. Doug didn't choose that by accident. For obscure reasons that date back to the famous Hinkley yachting family, Oxford is the home port for all kinds of celebrities and sea farers just bursting with interesting stories to tell. For example, Walter Cronkite's boat was in the slip just across from Ranger. No doubt, whenever Doug comes up dry for ideas for his next article, he can just hang around the docks and pick up a good story in short
order.

Leaving Oxford, we had a very brisk 20 knot head wind. That makes two days in a row with strong winds on the Chesapeake in July -- a rare event. Luckily, we had lots of room to maneuver so we beat our way upwind all the way here to LaTrappe. However, we reluctantly had to intrude Tarwathie in to the middle of a Oxford Yacht Club youth sailing race. I usually like to keep a long distance from such races so as to not disturb them. However, our intrusion to the middle of the race gave us a close-up
view. The racers were 10 year old boys and girls, each single handing a pitiful little Optimist sailing dinghy. These kids were so amazingly skillful and obviously confident in their abilities under difficult weather conditions. One can not help to admire those kids and the youth sailing programs that teach them. On Lake Champlain we've seen 14 year old kids sailing tiny boats in 30 knot winds and steep waves, and doing it so skillfully that they demonstrate complete mastery of the situation.

Half Wait, Half Sail

Trippe Creek
N 38 42.646 W 076 07.890

We're having trouble with our refrigeration system. It was running too many hours per day and causing the main batteries to run down overnight. I checked it and sure enough, there are bubbles in the coolant. It needs to be recharged with gas. I walked up to the hardware store and bought a can of R134A coolant gas, and an adapter hose to connect it to the service port of the fridge. The hose didn't fit. I got the number of the local regrigeration guy in Solomons and left a message for him.
He was supposed to call back this morning. He didn't. We waited until noon, then gave up and left. Oh well, if he had called it probably would only be to let us know that he's booked 3 weeks in advance.

We wanted to cross over the Chesapeake to Oxford on the Eastern Shore to meet with Doug. Doug is a blog fan and a Westsail owner who contacted us. It seems that there are three W32s in Oxford.

Surprise, the weather cooperated. Today is the first day with wind since we got to Solomons a week ago. We were able to sail almost all the way over here. Just before arriving, the wind freshened to 20 knots. So this has been a nice day. Any day in the summer when there is enough wind to sail in the Chesapeake is a nice day.

I'm going to call the manufacturer of our fridge and order an adapter hose from them. I'll ask them to ship it overnight or 2nd day air. The only problem is to find an address to ship it to. UPS and Fedex will not ship to a general delivery address, and most businesses won't use USPS to ship packages.